1. Field
The described embodiments relate to techniques for sharing a graphics-processing-unit display port with two or more external display ports in an electronic device.
2. Related Art
Displays are a popular technique for providing information to users of electronic devices. As a consequence, displays having a variety of audio/video display formats have been developed. In order to provide flexibility to users, it can be advantageous for an electronic device to support multiple external displays having different audio/video display formats.
However, it can be difficult to scale the limited resources in electronic devices to support multiple external displays. One approach used in existing electronic devices involves using a single display port having pins that can support physical connections to external displays having different audio/video interface formats. In this way, the display port can physically connect a variety of external displays to input/output (I/O) connectors in an integrated circuit in an electronic device. For example, the display port may be electrically coupled to a single head in a graphics processing unit in the electronic device that provides audio and video signals to the display port.
Another approach used in existing electronic devices is to have multiple display ports in the electronic device, each of which is compatible with a particular audio/video interface format. In this case, the display ports may be electrically coupled to corresponding dedicated I/O connectors in the integrated circuit, such as different heads in the graphics processing unit. However, because there are often a limited number of heads in the graphics processing units, dedicated use of particular heads for corresponding display ports can constrain the number of display ports that can be supported.